fâchevsfiacreConfusable pair

Quick tell: fâche is a verb, fiacre is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fâche” is a verb and “fiacre” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,560
“fâche” frequency rank
#39,298
“fiacre” frequency rank
62858
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fâche fiacre
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de fâcher. Voiture hippomobile de louage conduite par un cocher, que l’on utilisait à la course ou à l’heure.

Where the eye mixes fâche and fiacre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fâche runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against fiacre's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
fâche
6 ch
fiacre

Look-alike desk: fâche vs fiacre

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fâche is \fɑʃ\ while fiacre is \fjakʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62858, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fâche is recorded at frequency rank #23,560, classified as averb, pronounced \fɑʃ\. fiacre is at rank #39,298, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fjakʁ\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 62858, this pair ranks #84,898 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fâche vs fiacre

Shared letters: cef. Private to "fâche": . Private to "fiacre": air.

"fâche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "fiacre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fiacrefaicre · ffiacre · fiaccre · fiacer · fiacrre · fiarce · ficare · ifacre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fâche" for "fiacre" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fâche" is a verb and "fiacre" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fâche" or "fiacre"?
"fâche" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,560 in our French list, against #39,298 for "fiacre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fâche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fiacre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #84,898 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fâche" and "fiacre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fare vs fiacre". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #84,898 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list